Capri - Wander away from the Crowds

This article was shared with us by Jeanette, a travel blogger from Australia. Jeanette now lives in Israel, but is frequently to be found exploring Italy. You can follow her blog here.

Jeanette's Capri...

Last summer, we spent three superb days in Capri Island. We stayed in the more tranquil & scenic part of the Island, in the village of Anacapri.

The start of the Sentiero dei Fortini

On one of our days, we decided to do one of the many walking trails in this magical island. We chose the the "Fortini Coastal Walk" or better known as the "Sentiero dei Fortini".

This trails starts from the Blue Grotto (‪Grotta Azzurra) and ends at the Punta Carena lighthouse.

Of course you can do the walk in the opposite direction, which is a little easier with more downhill; however, we chose the direction of the blue grotto to the lighthouse as we wanted to end up at the local beach (but more of that later…).

Tip: We had already visited the blue grotto the previous day when we did a boat trip around the island, but I highly recommend visiting the grotto even though it is expensive…

Blue Grotto

The Fortini Coastal Walk meanders along the western border of the Island and you walk through shaded forests that offer incredible ocean views along the way. It can be fairly challenging in parts as you need to conquer uphills, downhills and rocky, uneven terrain.

The first half of the walk is quite shady but in the last third you are exposed to the sun and it is more challenging. The tail end of the trail was the most difficult as it was a long and exhausting uphill (it was tough!!).

My husband and I are in our mid-fifties and managed this walk with lots of breaks. We are not athletes but moderately fit so this walk is definitely do-able.

Just make sure you take with you plenty of water, sunhats, good walking shoes and most importantly a camera!!

Also, I highly recommend that you do this walk in the morning before it gets too hot. The walk took us around three hours but we took plenty of breaks.

Hardly a Soul About

Although this is a well-known trail, we hardly saw other walkers – so we had all these picture-perfect views to ourselves - can you believe that!!!

All along the trail, there are gorgeous ceramic signs decorated as open books, explaining the flowers, bushes and animals of the area.

A Dip in the Seas off Capri

It is important to add that there are no swimming options along this trail.

The only swimming option is at the light house beach called Lido del Faro. There is a section of the beach where you can hire sun chairs and umbrellas but we thought that the price was ridiculously expensive.

So we opted to the free area with the locals, lying on rocks (no soft sand here!!!), enjoying the views, the crystal blue waters and the local Capri beach ambiance..

This beach was a gem and we spent two hours resting our tired legs and swimming in the ocean.

It should be noted that there are toilets at this beach and a great informal café that serves fabulous drinks and light meals at a very reasonable price.